CIMABUE
(b. ca. 1240, Firenze, d. ca. 1302, Firenze)

Apocalyptical Christ (detail)

1277-80
Fresco, 350 x 300 cm
Upper Church, San Francesco, Assisi

The transept and the presbitery of the Upper Church was decorated mainly by Cimabue. This decoration represents at the same time the best expression of Cimabue's art and probably the most significant artistic monument of painting before Giotto and the Renaissance.

The decoration, unfortunately strongly damaged during the centuries, consists of both figural and geometrical ornamentation. In the apsis the stories of Mary are represented. On the central vault of the transept the four Evangelists are depicted. In the left transept episodes from the Apocalypse, while in the right transept the stories of the Apostles are illustrated.

The Apocalyptical Christ shows some similarities with the contemporary representations of the Last Judgment, therefore earlier it was erraneously interpreted as such.




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